PETALING JAYA, July 14 — A woman in Kelantan was shocked to discover that RM2,600 had been deducted from her online bank account to pay for online games.

Except she never made those purchases. 

The incident happened a week ago after Nor Liyana Abdullah lent her old handphone to her 13-year-old twin sons to use for their daily Teaching and Learning at Home (PdPR) sessions.

Nor Liyana, who hails from Gua Musang, told Malay Mail that she trusted her sons to use the phone wisely for their online teaching lessons, but they had other plans instead.

"One of the days last week, I wanted to purchase some accessories online on an e-commerce platform, but was denied purchasing because I only had a RM2.00 balance.

"I checked my emails but this one took me off guard as it stated that I had used RM2,600 and the purchases to some online games were successful.

"Oddly enough, I’ve never received a TAC (Transaction Authorisation Code) on my new handphone’s number regarding the purchase of the game.”

She said that it was the work of her sons who successfully deciphered her password on her Google Play account to buy the games and the same password was also used for her Google email.

As for the TAC, she said the verification might have happened through her email.

Nor Liyana said that her sons finally admitted that they were responsible for the purchases after she questioned them. 

"Although I tried to contact my bank to claim my money, it was unsuccessful as the fault was mine to have given the freedom to my sons to use my handphone and access my particulars.

"Being a secondary school teacher myself, I was busy with my own school work and my own PdPR lessons so I entrusted my two sons to just use the phone for their studies.

"But now I’ve learned my lesson and I have blocked my debit card, changed my password and have even deleted the apps on the old handphone,” she said.

She has also changed her password and installed an app to allow parents to monitor their children’s online activities.